A Century After Electric Cars First Took to the Roads, Thomas Edison’s Nickel-Iron Battery Gets a Second Look
In 1900, electric cars outnumbered gasoline-powered vehicles on American roads. However, the limited range—around 30 miles—and high cost of the lead-acid batteries, pioneered by Thomas Edison, hindered their widespread adoption. UCLA researchers are now revisiting Edison’s other battery design—the nickel-iron battery—with a modern twist, aiming to address the limitations that plagued it over a century ago.
A research collaboration led by UCLA has developed a nickel-iron battery prototype that recharges in seconds and demonstrates over 12,000 charge-discharge cycles in laboratory testing, equivalent to over 30 years of daily apply. Intelligent Living reports that this resurgence focuses on electrode surfaces and side reactions, addressing historic weak points in the original design.
Inspired by Nature’s Mineralization Processes
The UCLA team drew inspiration from natural processes, specifically how animals form bones and shellfish create their shells. Both rely on proteins acting as scaffolds for depositing minerals. Researchers mimicked this mechanism to grow clusters of nickel for positive electrodes and iron for negative electrodes. UCLA Newsroom details that the protein structures limited the size of the metal clusters to fewer than 5 nanometers.
These proteins, sourced as byproducts of beef production, were combined with graphene oxide—an ultrathin, single-atom-thick sheet of carbon. Superheating and baking the mixture charred the proteins into carbon, stripping oxygen from the graphene and embedding the metal clusters. The resulting structure is an aerogel, composed of 99% air.
Surface Area and Nanocluster Size: Key to Performance
The battery’s performance is significantly enhanced by its high surface area, provided by the graphene aerogel’s thinness and porosity. As particle size decreases to the nanoscale, the exposed surface area increases dramatically. According to UCLA, this allows almost every atom to participate in the charging and discharging reactions, leading to faster speeds and increased efficiency.
Potential Applications and Future Research
Whereas the current prototype doesn’t yet match the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, researchers believe this Edison-inspired technology is well-suited for grid-scale energy storage, particularly for storing excess electricity generated by solar farms. Gizmodo highlights its potential for backup power at data centers as well.
The research team is exploring alternative metals and protein sources, including more abundant and cost-effective natural polymers, to improve scalability and reduce manufacturing costs. UCLA reports that the study received funding from the Iran National Science Foundation, the National Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, Nanotech Energy Inc., a University of California Climate Action Seed Grant and the Tarbiat Modares University Research Council.
Source: UCLA
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